THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 403: Doggy Snake

"An orphan, huh?" he sneered under his breath.

Pulling out his phone, he dialed a number and waited. When a voice answered on the other end, Steffan’s tone was sharp and commanding.

"She just left. Keep a close eye on her," he instructed, his voice low but firm. "I think she’s up to something today. And if you notice anything strange or out of the ordinary, report to my brother immediately. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the voice on the line replied promptly.

"Good. Don’t lose sight of her," Steffan said, ending the call.

He returned into the house and went straight to the bathroom.

He couldn’t imagine how he survived the damage she did to his innocent body last night.

An entire day might not be enough to scrub off all her filth from his body. How can a lady be so shamelessly horny. He couldn’t help but shudder. At the rate she was going last night, an antechinus might not be able to satisfy her.

Steffan, who had just finished scrubbing himself in the shower,peered at the mirror as felt sorry for himself... his skin was so red from the relentless effort to cleanse away the remnants of the previous night.

He just emerged from the bathroom when his phone rang.

He wrapped a towel around his waist, and stared at the phone screen. He picked up the call when he saw that it was his brother, Stanley.

"How is my kid brother doing today?"

"Terrible," Steffan replied without mincing words. That was exactly how he felt with this whole situation.

"I can understand, but just endure for a little while," Stanley comforted. "How are things going with Dolly?"

Steffan scoffed. "I can’t believe that slut has the guts to lie to me that I’m an orphan. Can you imagine? How far can she go with her wicked schemes?"

"That shows how desperate she is to keep you to herself," Stanley said.

"Hope you didn’t give anything away?" He asked cautiously, knowing all too well how his brother’s character and reaction when it came to family.

"As hard as it was, I played along. She believes I’m buying her lies. And it appears, we lost a child too... may her soul rest in peace," Steffan offered a mocking prayer on behalf of the phony pregnancy. "Can you believe such nonsense?"

"A child? What do you mean?" Stanley’s voice rose in panic. "Steffan, I hope you haven’t been... misbehaving with her," Stanley’s voice sharpened with concern.

"Tsk! Cut me some slacks brother!" Steffan spat in disgust. "Maybe she thinks she’s some modern-day Mary, conceiving without a man’s involvement. Or maybe some other man got her pregnant but definitely not me. Besides, when I woke up, she had no sign of someone that just miscarried," Steffan pointed out.

"So, she’s lying about the child?"

"Do you still need to ask?" Steffan almost snapped. "I thought I was explicit enough. I can’t even bring myself to look at her, let alone..." Steffan cut himself off, disgust coloring his tone. "I haven’t touched her before, and I won’t... Just the very thought disgusts me."

"So, Stanley, there was never a child. It’s just part of her schemes to keep me ensnared and obviously get me into her bed... after all, the fastest cure to getting a grieving woman get over the loss of her child is to give her another one. But she had failed even before she wrote the exams."

"But you still have to be careful brother, that woman won’t give up easily."

"No matter how smart she is, I’ll always be several steps ahead of her," Steffan declared confidently

"To think that I always felt that Benita was crazy but this one is a master to them all. How did you ever get entangled with such a terrible species of women folk? I’ll have to remind Danny to learn from your mistake and shine his eyes wide before making friends with females in the future," Stanley teased.

Steffan’s face spasmed. Seriously? His brother was mocking him now with his five year old son. It’s not his fault anyway. He was the one that chose to be blind, but he’ll rectify that soon enough.

"How are things over there?" Steffan asked, changing the topic to a more important one,

Stanley chuckled and gave up teasing his brother. "I’ll be meeting with Killian and the commissioner tomorrow. I believe we should be able to finalize everything soon and most likely pay you and your darling wife a visit in the not too distant future," Stanley teased again.

"I can’t remember getting married to a doggy snake. My wife is right there with you," Steffan smirked.

Stanley’s laughter spilled over the phone. At some point Steffan had to join in the laughter as Stanley kept echoing ’doggy snake’ in between.

"Doggy snake indeed. Is she that demanding... in addition to her deceitful nature?" Stanley asked after laughing to his satisfaction.

"Don’t even go there. You can’t imagine the energy I had to exert to put up a, ’no stopping, no parking, just get lost’ expression all day just to keep her from coiling around me like the snake she is."

"I can imagine," Stanley said pitifully. His brother who had always been jovial and easy going, and always with a soothing smile, had to resort to such extreme measures... he must be under a lot of pressure all day.

"But when I remember that I’m doing this all for Lauren, it makes it worth the trouble, though. She’s the only thing that keeps me going, as I always think of her. I miss her every second."

"I know, Steffan. But you have to endure this for a little while longer just like you’ve been doing. Keep your eyes on the big picture. This is for both of you, especially her... like you said."

"How is she holding up with the news of my death?" Steffan asked, his voice momentarily breaking from its usual hardness.

"She’s devastated, more than you can imagine. She’s like a widow who lost her husband. Mom has taken it as a point of duty to stay with her every day after she heard that you guys had sorted things out and had proposed to her on the day of the incident. But she keeps blaming herself that if she hadn’t taken you outside the city, none of this would have happened.

"But it would have happened anyway, maybe not the way it did, but Dolly would have still launched an attack," Steffan said.

"That’s what we told her, but she still feels she’s responsible for your ’death.’ Even her parents had to cut their tour short to support her. Killian is the only one in the family who knows about our plan so far."

Steffan’s jaw clenched. The image of Lauren suffering made him want to abandon everything and rush back to tell her that he was alive. "I hate to see her suffer," he murmured, his voice raw with unspoken pain.

Stanley sighed. "We need to make the act convincing, Steffan. It’s not easy for anyone, but it’s necessary. Stay focused. Once this is all over, you’ll be back with her and hopefully this time, forever without any interference."

Steffan nodded, more to himself than to his brother as he couldn’t see him. "I just hope this ends soon. Every day with Dolly feels like living in the midst of worms with claws. But I’ll hold on... for Lauren’s sake," he added.